The Best Team In The League Comes To TownHow will the Rangers measure up against Vancouver?

Hank will have to be on top of his game tomorrow night

Canucks @ Rangers

Madison Square Garden, 7:00 Thursday night

Rangers record: 25-16-3

Canucks record: 28-8-6

After a so-so effort on Tuesday night against the Montreal
Canadiens, the Rangers will host the soaring Vancouver Canucks on Thursday
evening.

Vancouver,
a popular preseason Stanley Cup pick, has been on an absolute tear, going
18-1-3 in their last 22 games.The
Rangers will have the “benefit” of facing Vancouver’
backup goalie, Cory Schneider.The only
problem is that Schneider, one of the top young goalies in the league, has been
every bit as good as Roberto Luongo this year.The Canucks are stacked from top to bottom.They already had a talented group of
forwards, so this summer they set out to acquire more presence on defense.Keith Ballard and Dan Hamhuis have done just
that, and now it’s hard to find a weakness on Vancouver’s roster.The Canucks dynamic offense is led by the
Sedin brothers, Daniel and Henrik, but Ryan Kesler might be playing better than
either of them right now.A popular
Selke Trophy pick, Kesler has even recently been mentioned as a candidate for
the Hart Trophy.Vancouver also receives offense from Mason
Raymond, Alex Burrows and Mikael Samuelsson.The new additions on the Canucks blue line have joined Kevin Bieksa,
Alex Edler and Christian Ehrhoff to form one of the deepest and most versatile
defensive groups in the league.Simply
put, the Rangers have their work cut out for them.

The Blueshirts will need a far better effort than they gave Tuesday
night if they are to compete with the Canucks.If the Rangers are truly a good team in their own right as Coach John
Tortorella believes, then they’ll put up a good fight tomorrow night.Regardless of what else happens in the game,
it’s pretty much a given that the Rangers will need Henrik Lundqvist to deliver
one of his signature performances.He
was very good on Tuesday, but if the Rangers are to win this game, he might
have to steal it by himself.

New addition Wojtek Wolski looked pretty good in his debut,
but Tortorella wants to see more from him.Basically, Wolski is currently being entrusted with the task of
jump-starting the team’s supposed superstar, Marian Gaborik.With how things have gone lately, that looks
like a tough task.Luckily, the Rangers
have had a few other guys playing like stars lately.Mats Zuccarello has been dynamic and looks
like he’s on the cusp of really breaking through while Brandon Dubinsky’s
sensational season has kept right on rolling.

This will be a huge test for the extremely young Rangers
defense.The revised group looked fine
on Tuesday against a small Canadiens squad, but the Canucks are a whole new ball
game.It’s a lot to ask from Ryan
McDonagh, in just his fourth game, to play well against Vancouver, but that’s exactly what the
Rangers need.Marc Staal and Dan Girardi
will be responsible for shutting down, make that slowing down, the Sedin
brothers.

The Rangers have proven themselves against tough Eastern
Conference opponents this year, but this is unmistakably a “show me” game.